Codependency

Chapter 2 // Trap

Catra's trail led Adora deep into the Whispering Woods, where the woodland grew thicker and harder to push through. She hated to harm the woods that protected her, but she needed to catch up to Catra before she got back to her Horde friends or whatever horrible outpost the Horde might be trying to build here. She used her sword to slash through the thickets and vines that blocked her path.

Finally, Adora came clear into a small, open space. Catra's trail was gone, but Adora was left snapping her head this way and that to look for her. She almost overlooked a trailing vine that hung from a branch, until the vine twitched. Adora followed it up until she saw a shadow hunched on the wood, its tail twitching furiously. Adora drew her sword up threateningly.

"I don't know why you're here, but I'm going to stop you." Adora promised, scrunching up her nose and narrowing her eyes to try and look tough. She didn't know if it was working.

"All work and no play with you." Catra sneered. "I felt bad, what with you always busy defending Brightmoon and the woods and... well, everywhere, really. You must be so stressed out, I thought of a little game that might cheer you up."

Adora lowered her sword a bit. "What are you talking about?" she said briskly, not wanting to let her guard down.

Catra allowed herself a small smile. "Take two steps in any direction and find out."

Adora blinked in confusion and looked down. In front of her, beside her, somehow even behind her, where she had come from, glinted shiny metal. Thin wire traps were strewn out in the grass, on tree roots, in bushes, everywhere. It was a miracle Adora hadn't gotten snagged on one on her way into the clearing. She had been too focused on Catra's trail to notice the wires protruding from every surface.

"Catra, what is this?" Adora asked cautiously, not moving.

"It's my game," Catra answered haughtily, "It's like a puzzle. I'll sit right here. I'll wait for you to catch me, and then you can do whatever you want with me.  If you can manage to do it, you can interrogate me, lock me up, I don't care. But if you get caught, well..." her eyes narrowed to slits as she snaked her tail towards a wire trap that hung beside her in the branch. She barely tapped it with her tail, and the wire snapped closed instantly. 

Adora imagined any of these wires catching her, digging into her skin as they had done to Bow, trapping her and leaving her in pain... but she had no choice. Even if she wanted to go back, she'd have to navigate through more of these traps. She might as well try to accomplish something while she was here. Adora studied the ground closely, knowing it would be stupid to try and step between the wires. There were hidden ones all around. Maybe, if she used her sword, she could set off most of them and walk harmlessly through? It was worth a try, and Adora had bo better ideas. She carefully edged her sword towards the nearest trap.

"Would you like a hint?" Catra's patronizing voice made Adora flinch. "I wouldn't do that. If you set one trap off, you'll set them all off.  They're connected." 

Looking closer, Adora could see it. If one trap snapped shut, it would brush against another, and another, and those traps would set off all the traps around them. Adora would have something sharp and metal snaked around her throat before she could say Etheria. But what other plan did she have? Catra would never give her an actually helpful tip. She would have to risk it. Maybe if she stepped back once she tapped one, or stood still and closed all her limbs stiffly. Ignoring Catra's words, Adora used her sword to flick a trap nearby. She flinched back and held all her limbs close, standing straight like a plank. Her eyes darted to and fro as each trap went snap, snap, snap faster and faster, sending whip-like echoes through the forest. Adora was beginning to think she was safe, when... Fwip. Went a trap dangling above, right onto Adora's sword. Adora jerked it feebly, trying to free her sword without moving about. She yanked a little too hard and the sword slipped from her grasp, and her outstretched hands smacked into another wire. A trap snapped shut around her wrist. Adora screamed as burning pain seared her arm, and she blindly stumbled back until she felt two more snap around her legs. Wrenching her head back, she felt a trap tangle into her hair and yank it harshly. She let out another shriek of agony and hung limply, all her muscles tense and crying out, feeling as though giant ants were trying to burrow into her flesh.

"Catra! Make them stop!" Adora yelled, yanking  at the first wire around her wrist with her only free limb, an arm. She felt herself fwsshh out of She-ra form.

Catra simply watched her from her tree, smiling pleasantly as she waited, waited, waited an agonizingly long time for each trap she had set to snap shut. Only when the echoes of the traps were long gone, did Catra use a stick to wave around as she leapt from her tree, tapping everything as she slowly made her way towards Adora. Seemingly confident that every trap was shut, Catra dropped the stick and bent close to Adora, who was half-hanging, half-slumped on the ground.

"What's this? The great, powerful Princes She-ra needs my help?" she teased, brushing her claws through Adora's now messy hair.

"Catra!" Adora shrieked, every movement now sending shockwaves of burning pain through her body. She felt hot blood slithering down her arms and legs. "Let me out!"

Catra pulled her claws back and examined them nonchalantly. "Oh, I don't know... Are you sure you want to stop playing? It means you'd have to come with me. Back to the Fright Zone..." she explained slowly.

Adora was in too much pain and fear to care where she went. She could never get herself out of this, and she could feel her strength ebbing away the longer she went on tugging at the wires.

"I d-don't care. Catra, get them off... Help me! Please!" She cried desperately. 

Catra waited a few moments longer, until Adora felt like she might pass out, before grinning. "If you say so." She said, before her claws went slash, slash and cut the wires down. Adora lay limply on the ground, hardly feeling anything as Catra unwrapped the cruel traps from her body. The last think Adora saw before she black out was a smug, purring Catra, who hoisted her over her shoulder. Adora welcomed the quiet, pain-free darkness.

// lol short chapter go brrrrrrrr